CURRENT LITERATURE.
CHRISTMAS BOOKS.
The Heart of the White Mountains: their Legend and Scenery. By Samuel Adams Drake. (Chatto and Windus.)—It is just possible that some English readers may ask—Where are the White Mountains ? Let it be known, therefore, that they are in New England, and herein chiefly in the State of New Hampshire, the atlas making them run from Massachusetts into Maine. A very attractive and interesting book has Mr. Drake made out of his subject. The iliustrations are excellent,—vigorous sketches, reproduced with that delicacy of execu- tion in which the American engravers are unsurpassed. " Passaconna- way," " Lovewell's Pond," "Franconia Notch," and "Cloud Effects on Mount Lafayette," may be mentioned, though it is difficult to select where all are so good. The descriptions of scenery, a kind of reading, which, taken by itself, soon cloys, is skilfully diversified with other mat- ter. There are sketches of men and manners, past and present, such as that of the Crawford family, a race of giants who flourished some fifty years ago; and glimpses of the history of the district, often made tragical by cruel deeds and revenges equally cruel. The story of the "Sack of St. Francis do Sales" is a striking specimen of these narratives. St. Francis was a village of French Indians, which was destroyed, not till after terrible provocation had been given, by a provincial corps attached to the British Army. We had almost forgotten to notice the natural wonder of "The Old Man of the Mountain," "the greatest curiosity," says Mr. Drake, of this or any other mountain region." It is a gigantic face, seen in profile. No pencil could do it justice ; yet in Mr. Perkins's sketch it has a very striking appearance.—Iadiaa Pictures, drawn with Pen and Pencil. By the Rev. W.
Urwick. (Religious Tract Society.)—The Society, in all their excellent series of " Pictures " (which now has included no incon- siderable part of the world), has not given to the public a better executed or more interesting volume than this. Mr. Urwick traverses India from Ceylon to Nepaul, and finds, it may easily be imagined,
subjects in plenty for his pen and pencil. The prospects of Christian Missions are, of course, a peculiarly interesting topic to him, and his aecount of their past and present is full and satis- factory. Generally, he views the people in their moral and religious aspect. We may especially note here the account of Travancore, with its very characteristic illustration o'7 "Native Christian Girls." The sketches of the great buildings of India are numerous and remarkably good.—Past and Present in the East. By the Rev. Harry Jones. (Religious Tract Society )—It will be readily believed by all who have had the opportunity of reading what Mr. Jones has written before on kindred subjects, that we have here a thoroughly entertaining book. It is not entertainment, indeed, of the kind which "Mark Twain" gives us. Mr. Jones never tries to make fun. But he has a keen eye for a humorous situation, and knows how to describe what he sees in language which is effective, while it is perfectly simple. We start with him on a voyage up the Nile, which he makes, to his general satisfaction, in a steamer, and accompany him to the peninsula of Sinai and through Palestine. We do not know of a volume of equally modest pretensions which gives so good an idea, as regards both letterpress and illustrations, of its subjeet.--.7oo9primits of Jm'i i mm R.fOrMerg. By John Stoughton, D.D. (Religious Tract Society.) —This volume is much superior to the ordinary " Christtu is books " which serve the purpose of the customary present, and then are forgotten. It is, in one way, a sad subject, that of the Italian Reform ttion,—an heroic effort, almost wholly lost, as it seems to us. But these men, who spent their lives for a hopeless cause, are well worthy of remembrauce. Dr. Stoughton has visited the scenes of their work and martyrdom— and there are few towns, at least in Northern Italy, which have- not some of these memories connected with thorn —and he describes- them with loving faithfulness and diligence. Nor has he failed to search into the literature—a literature not incon4derable in ex- tent, and not easy of access—which treats of their lives and labours.. Thanks to his diligence as a pilgrim, and his industrious research as a scholar, we have here a most interesting an I instructive volume. Where a hundred have heard of Luther and Melanchtlion and Zaingle, not one knows anything of Aonio Pah:1%6o, and Carnesecchl, and Valdes; and we are much obliged to the zed and industry whiels• have put together this memorial of them.—Wititsr Pict ures, by Poet and Artist (Religious Tract Society), gives us some eighty or ninety extracts from posts. English and American —some of thorn scarcely known to avera.ge readers, or fallen into an oblivion which they do not deserve—and about half as In Iny illustrations from nature, animate or inanimate, as we see it in the winter season ; pretty- sketches, which Mr. Whymper has worthily rendered by his wood en- gravings.—A larger volume, of a similar kind, only that it does not limit itself to the winter beauties of Nature, or indeed to Nature at all, is Rose and Holly, and Pen and Pencil Pictures from the Poets.. (Nimmo, Edinburgh.) —The volume is, in fact, a very ornamental "Elegant Extracts in Prose and Verse," for which writers such as Goldsmith, Thackeray, Sydney Smith, and the like, are laid under contribution. It is a good book for the drawing-room table, having something that will suit all a reader's moods ; and, if he be in the. mood not forced at all, something also to please the eye.—A Winter Nosegay, being "Tales for Children at Christmastide" (W.. Swan Sonnenschein and Allen), is intended for the younger sort, and should not fail to please them. Both tales and pictures are entertaining.— Gipsy Mike. (J. F. Shaw.)—It may be said with confidence that a didactic tale, if it is to have any effect, must be scrupulously free from exaggeration. There is no kind of book to which the maxim incredulus odi applies more surely. Now, what are we to think of a wild gipsy boy who calls a stray dog "Starlight," because the animal has a white star on his breast ? It is a little thing, but it indicates a good deal. Indeed, all time book is pitched ia the same key. It is well intended, and for the most part well written, but it fails to commend itself to the judgment, though it may some- times touch the feelings of its readers. —Oat in the Wilds. By George Manville Fenn. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Mr. Rogers and his two sons, accompauied by two Zulu lads and a Zulu hunter, make a hunting expedition from Natal into the interior. The Kaffir hunter acts the part of Cooper's "Natty Borneo, " tted there is a comic Irishman, a type, we fear, now becoming extinct, to make fun. There is plenty of adventure with every kind of wild beast, from elephants downward, and the story moves briskly on. It is well that English lads should learn to think of the Zulu as possibly some- thing better than a cruel savage, and we would especially welcome the book on this account—Uncle Fred's Shilling. By Emily Brodie. (Shaw.)--Thongh it is an old idea, this of making a coin tell the stories of those through whose hands it passes, it admits of being worked to an indefinite degree. This shrilling has a suffi- ciently interesting career, and we rather resent the frequent and prolonged interruptions which are caused by " Uncle Fred's" nephews and nieces. These young people, who are quite common- place, save for their exceeding the average of accidents, take up more time than their intrinsic value warrants,—.Tina's Treasure, by A. K. H. Foster (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier, Edinburgh), is a well-told little story of a child whom a ffidrerman's boy rescues from the sea, and in whom he finds what is of far more value than the gold which his father and brother—wreckers, both of thorn— secure for themselves. Hon, tie Frovh Win Algiers, translated from the German of W. 0. von Horn (the same publishers), is an agreeable mixture of fact and fiction. The fact is not the less accu- rately fact because it is a German who tells the story, and not a Frenchman. This part, which is judiciously distinguished by the de- scription " Historical," is well told ; and Karl, tire hero of the fiction, is an interesting person.--The Bird of Truth, and other Fairy Tales, by Fernan Caballero (W. Swan Sonneuschein and Allen), is one of an "Illustrated Library of Fairy Tales of All Nations." This particular volume is of Spanish origin, and though the writer, rt Spanish lady using the pseudonym of " Fernan Caballero," has put in many modern. jams, they arc very good indeed. We are not tired of time old favourite fairy stories, " The White Cat," and its fellowe, but to find, as we do here, what is really fresh and novel, is very pleasant. "The Bird of Truth " is a capital story, so are mammy of the others, not the less BO because they do not obtrude morals upon us. —Any reader who is wearied of fiction, and desires an alterative of fact, cannot do better than go to Great Movements and Those Who Achieved Them. By Henry J. Nicoll. (Hogg.)—The story of "Prison Reform," with an account of John Howard, supplies the first chapter ; and that -of "The Abolition of the Slave-trade," coupled with the name of Wilberforce, the second. Other social and economical movements are described, one at least a movement of which we reap the benefit, without sufficiently recognisiag the importance. The introduction of gas did a service to the community not much inferior to that ren- -dered by the inventor of the steam-engine, but who before Mr. Nicoll has honoured the names of Murdoch, Winsor, and Clegg ? They seem, too, to have had less of pecuniary reward. It was the second generation of shareholders that reaped the advantage, -no uncommon event in the history of inventions. Mr. Nicoll seems to have done his task well. He has certainly produced -a book full of interest. — Along with this volume may be mentioned Earnest Lives, Bi^graphies of Remarkable Men and Women, 'compiled and selected by the Editor of "Treasury of Modern Bio- graphy," dtc. (Nimmo and Co., Edinburgh.)—Of new issues, we 'may mention Fairy Tales and Stories, by Hans Christian Andersen, -translated by ,Dr. H. W. Dulcken (Routledge and Sons) ; Village Tales, by Miss Mitford. (Nimmo.) (Bat why are we told in the preface, "Although compelled to eke out her income by her pen, this refined and gentle authoress has left behind her some of the finest country tales and sketches that we possess?") The world would have lost many fine things, if it had not been for this same compulsion "to eke out the income by the pen."—Tea-time Tales, by Richard Gustafsson (W. Swan Sonnenschein and Allen), a volume contain- ing "Chit-chat," by Pack and "Rose-leaves ;" "The Innocents Abroad ;" by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) (Chatto and Windt's). School Days at Kingscourt, by the Rev. H. I. Adams t(Rontledge and Sons) ; and Edgar Nelthorpe, or the Fair Maids of Taunton, by the Rev. Andrew Reed. (J. F. Shaw.) We must not forget to mention with special commendation a pretty little illus- trated reprint of The Angel's Story (G. Bell and Sons), one of the most beautiful and pathetic of Miss Adelaide Anne Procter's poems, for which Mr. C. 0. Murray has furnished some appropriate illus- trations.—Among the yearly issues of magazines, we may give the first place by courtesy to one that, though not absolutely a new corner, has completed the second year only of its existence, The Union Jack, edited by G. A. Henty. (Sampson Low and Co.) It was etarted by the late Mr. Kingston, and has fallen, we need not say to those who have any knowledge of this kind of literature, into excellent bands. This is a goodly volume, full of excellent reading, as we are assured by some very experienced and competent young critics, and -deserves a liberal patronage.—Old established favourites, which do not need any further commendation than that they continue to de- serve the favour which they have received, are Every Boy's Annual, edited by Edmund Routledge (Routledge and Sons) ; Young England; .an. Illustrated Magazine for Recreation and Instructi. n (" Young England" Office) ; The Girl's Own Annual (The "Leisure Hour" Office) ; Peter Parley's Annual, which, completing it forty-first year, has, we observe, on its title-page the name of new publishers, Messrs. Routledge.—Also from Messrs. Routledge, and intended for younger readers, we have Little Wide-Awake, edited by Mrs. Sale Barker ; and for the same part of the public, The Family Friend -(S. W. Partridge), deserving special praise for its plentiful and ex- cellent illustrations. We must also mention The Young Standard- Bearer. (Church of England Temperance Society.)
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